Scrzy

I'm not a frequent poster as I've learned I've forgotten my original username. I had booked my stay with the very low redemption rates offered last summer. I haven't been to the Maldives since 2006 when I stayed at the now Conrad.

I've skimmed the post in preparation for my trip. This was my blowout goodbye spg because I'm not a Marriott person trip.

Overall, I've been happy with my trip. I was still given platinum benefits even though I didn't make it for 2017.

Breakfast was good, I liked the benedicts especially with the fried soft shell crab as a side. If you're debating about paying for breakfast, I would argue that is likely the only time you can drink (prosecco) and eat your fill. If you don't have much of an appetite, you can order oatmeal for $30 and eat in your villa.

All the restaurants are good, is it worth the price listed? If you consider that everything has to be shipped in, yes it is fine. I actually liked alba the most for dinner. I had a very tasty squid ink tagliatelle dish. Orientele is ok, probably because I'm Asian and already have a bias about such foods at high end hotels. Cargo is good but not enough for me to return to that location. Actually, when we heard that cargo was taking over alba for dinner, I opted to order room service and eat in. FYI, room service is the same price as restaurants.

Spa is fine, nothing over the top. The blue hole is $60 per person for two people and I didn't really want to spend two hours in a jetted pool and be with other people. I think the max occupancy is 8 people.

I stayed in a garden villa for three nights and sunrise overwater villa the last two. Both are quite nice and depends on what you want to do. I liked the spacious feeling in garden villa because it feels like your own compound since the whole lot is fenced/walled. Also felt very private. I dig the outdoor showers.

Sunrise over water faces the island and the "bay" is ideal for swimming but not snorkeling unless you hug the villas and head towards the end of the deck. The current gets strong and you should always try to snorkel out against the current so that you can 'float' back to your starting point. Less tiring that way. The villa is nice and the layout is more "efficient " than the garden villa.

Overall, I think corals are taking a beating worldwide. People are not careful and they do do damage. On my snorkeling boat trip, the group I traveled with clearly dont go snorkeling much and hit coral or picked things up. The best corals I've seen is the Philippines (coron) and only because they are still undeveloped in most of the country. With that said, there are plenty of fish, saw a shark one morning. Best time was at 630 am, the fish are spawning right now and there were all sizes of fish.

The resort caters to the arabs. That was the largest group, second was European, third was Koreans/Chinese.